Cliff Lee and Brad Lidge have been named AL and NL Comeback Players of the Year.
Lee, of course, will be taking home a more famous award in a few weeks.
Congratulations to both of these fellas. Well deserved and great accomplishment! A sure sign at how hard the both of them worked on and off the field to rekindle their abilities this year.
As for Lee, if some of you were not familiar with his situation, please let me provide a brief history and how he deserves this award more than any.....
Lee never got on track in 2007 after suffering a strained abdominal muscle in spring training. By the time he was healthy, the season had begun and he was trying to make the adjustments the Indians wanted while facing batters who had a month head-start on him. The losses and frustration began snowballing until the four-game losing streak that led to his Buffalo stay.
When he was in Class AAA Buffalo, N.Y., for seven starts at the end of last season, came back to Cleveland as a bullpen benchwarmer, was left off the Tribe's postseason roster and offered as trade bait during the off-season, he didn't lash out at the Indians or anyone else who lost faith in him. Instead he used it as motivation to work his tail of in the offseason.
Part of that is because of Lee's innate laid-back confidence, an easygoing personality that rarely wavers from the baseline of unruffled. His face always seems to be the same unaltered blank mask, only rarely cracked by a smile
Part of his coping ability, too, was knowing what real tragedy is, and that there is a difference between a minor setback and an earth-crashing catastrophe.
Tragedy was when Lee's son, Jaxon, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 4 months old, an illness that led to chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and more chemotherapy before the cancer finally was defeated. Or when daughter Maci was born three months premature, so tiny and fragile that she caused a world of worry.
Tragedy was not being relegated to the forgotten land in Buffalo - just a year removed from signing a three-year contract because he was viewed as a vital cog in the Indians' organization - while the Tribe succeeded without him.
In Buffalo, Lee was back to a minor-league lifestyle he hadn't lived since 2003 - staying in hotels that weren't the Ritz Carlton and coaching first base for the Bisons, just like all the team's other starting pitchers. Buffalo manager Torey Lovullo called him a "true professional" who simply went to work each day and did what was asked. But Lee didn't distinguish himself enough to earn a return ticket to the big-league starting rotation; he was 1-3 with a 3.51 ERA for the Bisons.
His kids, back in Cleveland, didn't understand what had happened. They just knew Lee wasn't playing for the Tribe, so Jaxon, then 6, objected when Kristen Lee turned the TV to an Indians game in August.
"We can't watch that," Jaxon said. "Daddy's not with that team anymore."
Lee was determined to get back after watching the Tribe come close to a World Series appearance, and even was eager to return after an off-season filled with trade rumors. Several times he thought he was headed to another team. Kristen Lee would keep a closer watch on the gossipy Internet message boards, while Cliff merely shrugged that he only wanted to be with a team that wanted him.
Going into the '08 season, Lee was given the opportunity to win the 5th and final starting spot in the rotation. What he did, then, was return to spring training healthy, win the starting spot over his former replacement, Aaron Laffey, and become an unbeatable force on the mound.
What followed was a record of 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA, leading the AL in both wins and ERA. He added to that a 1.11 WHIP and 170 K's against only 34 walks (5.00 K/BB). Seeing where he was in '07 and the personal battles he had, surely makes this years' accomplishment even all the more impressive.
Thanks for the inspiration Cliffy! :up
